Ducal Intelligence Ministry
The Ducal Intelligence Ministry (DIM) The Ducal Intelligence Ministry (DIM) is responsible for the Grand Duchy's Secret Police, SpecOps, BlackOps, and intelligence operations. It is extremely influential within Duchy society, and commands vast resources. DIM primarily concerns itself with suppressing revolutionary movements, keeping tabs on (and occasionally eliminating) troublesome internal elements, espionage, assassinations, SpecOps (known in the Duchy as Discreet Operations), sabatoge, and counter-espionage work. Caractacus Veed, Marquis de Vel Derth, Director of DIM A minor nobleman, heir to the small gas-collection outpost of Vel Derth on Valyrius, Veed has wormed his way up the social ladder of the Grand Duchy thanks to a combination of native intelligence and total ruthlessness. His abilities came to the attention of Count Marxus von Venym after his role in the suppression of the Rhadast uprising in 1433 and he has been in the service of the Venym and Grindehook Great Houses for decades as head of their espionage apparatus, the Ducal Intelligence Ministry. Veed has accumulated tremendous resources and political influence for DIM during his tenure as its head, and is rumored to have undergone extensive-if subtle- cybernetic augmentations. Ducal Gendarmerie Law enforcement in the Grand Duchy is the responsibility of the local liege lord, and its quality and availability varies wildly throughout the innumerable fiefdoms of which the Duchy is composed. The Ducal Gendarmerie are administered by DIM as a pan-Duchy secret police force, responsible for rooting out terrorist cells, political radicals, crime and smuggling rings, and other undesirable elements. The Duchy makes great use of crime syndicates outside of its borders, but within Duchy holdings such operations are prosecuted ruthlessly by the Gendarmerie. DIM Spy Network The DIM network of informants, agents and spies reaches throughout the Southern Quad rant, and is especially well entrenched in criminal, mercenary, pirate, and smuggling networks thanks to the Duchy's close relationship with many pirate and mercenary factions, and with the Drogue Collective. DIM Oathmen Like the Duchy armed forces, DIM prefers to outsource many of its operations as much as possible, making extensive use of mercenaries, contract killers, private smugglers, and other unsavory individuals to do its bidding. Such individuals who repeatedly and successfully complete contracts for DIM, and who are deemed trustworthy, become known as Oathmen, semi-official agents of the Grand Duchy. Many noted Drogue problem solvers are, secretly or not-so-secretly, Oathmen of the Grand Duchy. Discreet Operations The black operations wing of DIM, responsible for domestic and foreign affairs. Discreet Ops is a distinct department from the Ducal Army Irregular Activities Branch, which operates exclusively in combat zones but largely uses similar units. Units: The Faceless Desc: A highly specialized varient of the Flathead soldier-clone used by the Ducal Army. The Faceless are cybernetically augmented and biologically modified vat-grown human clones designed for close combat and stealth operations such as reconaissance, assassination, sabatoge, kidnapping, etc. While the Faceless possess highly limited sentience, they are implanted with advanced archeo-tech cognition engines which allow them a high level of adaptability, combat skill, and situation-assessment. They are especially known for their ability to clamber, insect like, over almost any surface. What the Faceless lack in creativity, imagination and improvisational skill, they more than make up for in obedience, relentlessness, numbers, and replacability. The Faceless are used extensively both in and outside of combat zones, where they are often used as assassins to target the enemy command structure, or in swarms to overwhelm entrenched positions. Often, other Duchy stealth operatives will operate with a team of Faceless who are mind-slaved to their commands. This is most common in Gn'Mok Hunter-Killer teams, in which one or more Faceless is slaved to act as hunter units to a Gn'Mok Killer (see below). Gentleman-Class Assassin Desc: Highly trained and cybernetically augmented assassins used by DIM Discreet Operations and Army Irregular Activities. The Gentleman Class is so named because they are almost exclusively the sons or daughters of Duchy nobility, given at birth to DIM by their families. It is considered a great honor in many noble families to have donated a child to DIM, and a chair is traditionally left unoccupied at the family table to signify the sacrificed child. Once in DIM's clutches, the children are stripped of their former idenity and put through extensive psycho-conditioning from birth. Over the course of their childhood and adolescence, they are trained in combat with a variety of weapons from sniper rifles to energy blades to poisions. The Gentleman-Class Assassin is designed to work alone, or in tandem with a team of slaved Faceless units. Y'Ghul Skinwalker Desc: Native to the pirate world of Y'Ghul, a semi-independent client kingdom of the Grand Duchy, the Y'Ghul Skinwalkers may have been a species specifically bio-designed by the Golden Empire to serve as assassins. Whatever their origins, the Skinwalkers are an alien species capable of assuming the forms and noise patterns of other humanoid species for extended periods of time. The Skinwalker Coven is an organization of the creatures on Y'Ghul who hire out their services to the highest bidder. DIM and the Coven have a longstanding contract, and the Duchy often use the Skinwalkers' unique abilities for assassinations and espionage operations. Gn'Mok Hunter-Killer Team Desc. A Gn'Mok Killer is an elite, veteran close combat soldier of the Gn'Mok species well equipped for for anti-personnel and anti-vehicular engagements. They are often paired with a Introgg sniper to form an exceptionally dangerous team of assasins. Category:The Duchy